May Workshop (daily 5/17 - 5/30, 1:30 - 5:30)

These two courses are only available to students attending the 2-week May workshop.

Course Title

Instructor

Days/Times

CRN

ENGL 5377 Style (theory, applied theory)

Cargile Cook

1:30-5:30 p.m. daily

36680

ENGL 5365 New Media Rhetoric (theory, applied theory)

Rice

1:30-5:30 p.m. daily

25310

Descriptions

ENGL 5369: Discourse and Technology (Baehr)

This graduate-level course focuses on foundational and contemporary issues in discourse
and technology, and in particular how relevant theories in digital rhetoric, hypertext,
and technology have influenced our current methods and practices in technical communication
and online publication. We'll discuss foundational scholarship in digital literacy,
textuality, authorship, narrative, and culture. We'll examine and discuss their influences
on contemporary issues in universal design, information experience, semantics, content
strategy, and new media studies. We'll look at how perception, cognition, and experiential
learning inform these important concepts. And, finally, our discussion will explore
the intersections and rhetorical underpinnings found in social media, content management
systems, and other forms of online publication. Specific coursework includes developing
a blog, a research paper, and multimedia presentation.

ENGL 5377: Sexual Politics (Faris)

This course will explore various intellectual traditions of analyzing and critiquing
sexual politics, including feminism, queer theory, poststructuralism, and intersectional
theories. A particular focus will be on how rhetoric scholars have approached sexual
politics. Sexuality is political and rhetorical in a variety of ways, intersecting
with many other aspects of civic and social life. Thus, while sexual politics will
be at the center of this course, readings in this course will touch on a vast array
of other political and rhetorical topics, including citizenship; the private/public
distinction; pedagogy and education; public health; identity and power, including
race, class, and disability; history and historiography; memory studies; agency; technical
communication; materiality; economics; composition pedagogy and literacy; and norms
and conventions of academia. Students will gain an understanding of a variety of methods
and methodologies used by rhetoric scholars and scholars of sexuality studies to explore
sexual politics; explore conversations and scholarly traditions in sexuality studies;
and work on their own scholarly project exploring an aspect of sexual politics and
rhetoric. Assignments will include position papers, a book review, and a final scholarly
project (with a proposal and literature review).

ENGL 5377: Rhetoric and Agency (Wilson)

For centuries rhetoricians have considered what it means to speak and write effectively.
This course will examine the idea of rhetorical agency from ancient Greece to modern
day. We will look at both published rhetoric and composition articles and more theoretical
treatments of the power of discourse to change belief, ideology, and the world around
us. We will also consider the contexts, constraints, and material conditions in which
we operate as rhetorical agents. Readings are likely to include Isocrates, Quintilian,
Foucault, Bourdieu, Giddens, Lawrence Grossberg, Herndl & Licona, C. Miller, M. Cooper,
Gunn, and some current material and object-oriented rhetorics. We will get a grip
on different theories of agency and figure out how to write about them as scholars.

ENGL 5377: Data Mining (Lang)

"Hello, Susan Lang. We have recommendations for you." So reads the top line of my
amazon.com home page. Immediately below it, there are such links as "Susan's Amazon.com,"
Your Browsing History," and "Improve Your Recommendations." This single page represents
one example of how we use information to understand and forecast behaviors and actions
of individuals and/or entire systems. Often, we are aware that our actions are being
documented and stored in a database; what we are less aware of is how that information
is being analyzed, repurposed, and used to understand or encourage subsequent behavior.

This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of working with relational
databases and Big Data for research, assessment, and programmatic decision-making.
After initial overviews of databases, text mining, and data mining, we'll examine
the use of relational databases for both inductive and deductive projects, that is,
understanding how to work with a dataset to build hypotheses and how to approach the
dataset with a previously structured hypothesis. Students will gain familiarity with
the central theoretical and practical concepts of textual analysis such as data reduction,
reliability and validity issues, and data visualization. In addition to reviewing
the field of textual analysis, students will practice text mining research firsthand
with a large dataset and professional research software. We will also cover such relevant
topics as IRBs and intellectual property issues that arise from working with datasets.

Assignments will include reading responses, generating a research hypothesis for a
project as well as a methodology for testing that hypothesis, and working with data
and textual analysis techniques needed to test that hypothesis. Throughout the course,
students will encounter new and promising research tools that are likely to have profound
consequences across our disciplines.

ENGL 5390: Writing for Publication [Kimball (Wednesdays)]

This graduate course will address theoretical and practical issues related to scholarly
writing and publishing in the 21st century. A broad array of genres will be covered,
including peer-reviewed articles, scholarly monographs (books), edited collections,
webtexts, and book reviews. Students can expect to learn practical advice on how to
get published and to discuss recent trends and changes in scholarly publishing. Although
the field of technical communication will be our primary focus, we will also consider
scholarly writing and publishing more broadly across the disciplines.

ENGL 5377: Style (Cargile Cook, May Workshop)

Style explores the rhetorical canon of style from both theoretical and applied perspectives.
The first unit of the course will examine style from a theoretical perspective, taking
a quick historical survey of style as a rhetorical canon. The second unit will focus
on technical style and its variations across disciplines and media. The final unit
of the course will approach style from a practical, global perspective, particularly
as it applies to international documentation and standards.

Throughout the course, students will analyze writing samples and discuss the stylistic
choices writers make. Daily classes will include discussion, stylistic analysis, and
writing workshop. Students will the following course requirements, which will be submitted
at the end of the course as a style portfolio:

A book review draft (~1500 words) to be written prior to the first day of class and
targeted to a specific academic journal

A series of short daily style assignments examining the book review and leading to
the creation of a style analysis (~1800-2000 words)

A revision of the book review based on the style analysis

A style analysis of another student's writing (~1800-2000 words) with findings and
recommendations for improvement

A revision of a longer document (~2500-3000 words) the student has written prior to
taking the course, based on the personal style analysis and the analysis completed
by a fellow student

The course will draw from a variety of reading materials, including the following
required texts:

For the book review assignments, you may choose to review any newly published scholarly
text. I recommend that you choose a text that will be of interest to readers of a
targeted journal. I will provide a list of newly published texts on style, but you
may range more widely. If you already have a book review that is unpublished, you
may use it for this assignment. Before purchasing your text, please email Dr. Cargile
Cook for approval and include the book citation, reason for selection, and name of
targeted journal.

You will also need access to an excellent dictionary of your choice as well as your
preferred style guide/manual.

ENGL 5365: New Media Rhetoric (Rice, May Workshop)

Technical communicators often see problems in their communities that require sophisticated
plans to resolve. Such problems might include using multiple media types to explain
material, to instruct, or to design feasibility analysis reports. English 5365: Media/Rhetoric
is designed to introduce students to theoretical and practical complexities and practicalities
of working with new media. We will discuss different formulations of what "new media"
might mean while reading a variety of important and mind-opening works about media,
and while putting our new knowledge into practice with group projects.